Saturday's in the bag...

Ugh... I was right, my cold got worse. Not as severe as my colds normally are, but bad enough to make me miserable at work yesterday and today. Thank god for Shawna, the girl I work with. She's amazing and picked up my slack. Normally I'm constantly on the go, but I feel like I sat on my ass the majority of the day today (and yesterday). Now I can just sit and do nothing for a few days.

I took lots of reinforcements with me yesterday and today. Things like Emergen-C, chamomile tea and plenty of peppermints to help clear my stuffiness. Not much helped, though. Staying overly hydrated seems to be the only thing that helps -- I'll never doubt drinking gallons of water a day again.

I have lost my sense of smell and taste, which is not fun to experience. I lost everything at work today, then had a little glimmer of false hope when I was suddenly able to smell and taste, but only for around 30 minutes. Now it's gone again, and gone it will stay.

Now (hopefully) I just have to not be super ill for the premiere of The Walking Dead tomorrow. If there's one show I love more than the rest, it's TWD.

My "feel better" bag that I've had at work all weekend.

And deny that awesome view, though. Even if I am sick.

No, just no...

Ugh, god, I hate being sick. It started last night and is in moderate swing today. Yuck, just yuck. And you wanna know the real joy? I have to work the rest of the weekend -- fun! Sarcasm, obviously. Not that what I do on the weekends would be considered hard, but it's draining. Being on your feet all day can do that to you.

I'm hoping and praying that this doesn't turn into a 2 week long cold like I had at the beginning of the year. It never fails, when I get sick, I'm sick. Like nearly every cold-like symptom I can have I'll get. So yeah, there's that...

Oh, I almost forgot, I asked off this Sunday for The Walking Dead premiere. If I continue to get sick, I'm going to be forever grateful that this is the Sunday that I asked off.

My day consists of tea.

And more tea, plus gallons of water and gatorade.

And cats...

Remembering Hamilton...

You may find yourself wondering just who Hamilton is, well he was a cat that showed up here a couple months ago out of nowhere. He was very skittish and afraid for the first couple weeks, but he soon warmed up. He was sneezy when he first arrived, so we took extra precaution when coming back in the house around Zoe. We refrained from holding him and couldn't let him rub on our legs, which was rough. Zoe had just had her surgery and is FIV positive, so we couldn't risk cross-contaminating.

He stopped sneezing after a few days, but we continued our same routine of washing after being around him, just to be on the safe side. He was so, so friendly and just wanted to be loved on and rubbed. He wouldn't even eat if we were around to touch him, which breaks my heart to think about. He purred very loud and chased us all over the yard. He would stop to roll every 5 feet and would jump and lunge before doing so, it was the cutest thing.

He was a black and white cat and had one solid white front leg and one solid black one. He had a big black splotch on his nose, along with a lot of white and some other black splotches. He had a nose that would remind you of a spuds dog and just the sweetest little face. This is so hard to write, as it breaks my heart that I didn't take one picture of him.

Hamilton didn't act like himself Monday the 25th (last month), so we gave him some medicine that we had left over -- perfectly safe, I might add. The vet approved. He barely ate anything that evening, which worried me, but it didn't make me think anything serious was going on. I sat down by the boat and held him in my arms for the first time. He didn't feel well and I felt he needed comforting. The next day he was no better, Wouldn't eat, just kind of stood around and stared at me. I held him again and stood down by the boat in the rain and rubbed on him. A vet visit was in order the next day before we left for Cape, but he was nowhere to be found when I got up. I looked and looked and called him, but nothing.

We asked my aunt to keep an eye out for him and asked if she would feed him and give him his medicine, which she did late that night. We got the unfortunate news Thursday morning that he had passed away. My heart broke as the tears filled my eyes. I was so upset and felt abusive and neglectful. I felt like I didn't do my job as a pet owner and love, I let him down. I should have taken him to the vet Monday and I'll never ever let myself forget that. I'll also never forgive myself for not taking one picture of him -- I hate myself for not doing so.

I'm so sorry your life with us was so short lived, Hamilton. I'm sorry we didn't take better care of you and take you to the vet sooner. I'll never forget you for as long as I live and I hope that you don't hate us for not doing so. You were loved while you were here and will never, ever be forgotten...

RIP Hamilton

? - July 28th 2016 

Dogs mysterious leg swelling...

So last night around 3:30 am when LaVaughn and I normally feed the cats and Milla, something went awry. When LaVaughn tried to get Milla to stand, she wouldn't! It was almost like she was paralyzed - it was absolutely terrifying! A panicked LaVaughn ran to the glider room where I was and told me. I quickly made my way to the living room where she was. After much coaxing, we were finally able to get Milla to the kitchen where we discovered she was favoring her right read leg. We were slightly relieved when we saw that she could walk on one of her legs and wasn't completely crippled.

Since Milla's on the hefty side, we just chalked it up to her pulling something and didn't think too much into it - she's stepped wrong before and hurt her leg, we figured it was something like that. We went to bed around 5 am and was up in a panic just after 7 am because Milla wouln't stand again. That's when we decided to head to the vet.

We got blankets down in the car and headed towards Fredericktown. I mentioned before we left the house that we should probably all before we go, just to be on the safe side. We stopped just at the start of C hwy and called. Just as I suspected, all of the vets were in surgery and the only opening they had was 3 pm. I called our other vet in Poplar Bluff and it was the same thing. The only difference is that they didn't have an opening slot and would have just had to work us in sometime after 1:30. We kept the guaranteed appointment and went back home.

We both went back to bed until just after noon, which I'm so grateful for.

It didn't take us long to make it to the vet and, of course, they were packed. Milla wasn't feeling good at all, so she slept almost the entire time in the waiting room, which is not her usual thing. We got Dr. Swinford and he recommended x-rays before anything. We were sent back to the waiting room while they took Milla to the back.

It was nearly 35 minutes before he came out and spoke to us. He told us that there was no breaks or fractures that he could see. I don't think I mentioned this, but her knee area was really swollen at this time. He aspirated some fluid from her leg and said that he honestly didn't know what it was. He said there were no white blood cells in it, which was odd. We was upfront with being unsure and recommended we take her to a specialist, She was also running a 105 degree temperature, which was super high. He ended up sending us home with two different antibiotics and some Metacam.

As of right now, her temperate has gone down to 102.6 -- it was 103 earlier, but it's gone back down. It actually went down some last night, which is amazing. She didn't feel well at all yesterday evening. She didn't eat her burgers from McDonald's, all she wanted to do was drink water and sleep. She wouldn't eat anything yesterday evening, but I did get her to eat some ham last night and super early this morning -- it's all she'll eat, so she's getting it.

She seems a little better today. Like I said, her temp is down, but her swelling isn't. The swelling got worse last night, which worries me. But, she does seem to feel better. I'm just hoping and praying that her antibiotics kick in soon and she's on the road to recovery. I have to call the vet tomorrow and give him an update. He's out today, which is why I can't call him today.

So there's that. Another hellish week of being on the brink of a nervous breakdown! Please keep Milla in your thoughts, prayers, meditations, or ANYthing that you do. It'll be much appreciated.

-Megan

Milla at the vet yesterday:

This is her leg today:

For the love of cat grass...

I'm trying to keep my mind far from the fact that we just lost Pip a few days ago. The glider room isn't the same, nothing is when it comes to the gliders. It's nearly impossible not to think of him because I have Sadie next to me all the time. She's still a long way away from being better, so I keep her in a bonding pouch loaded with blankets all the time. I have to give her meds every 12 hours plus I'm handing feeding her (she's holding food now) and offer her something to drink every hour it seems.

I still can't believe he's gone, I don't want it to be real...

I thought, since my last blog was so depressing, that I would share some cute pictures of Zoe eating some cat grass. We picked this up over a week ago and have been watering it and keep it in the sunlight, just like the instructions said. Well it's completely flourished and is so rich and lovely. Zoe highly approves, as you'll be able to see from the following pictures.

-Megan

Cat grass fever:

1.5 Billion Powerball...

As practically every person in the work knows, the 1.5 BILLION Powerball drawing is tonight. I know I shouldn't have, but I bought 3 tickets yesterday on my lunch break while I was getting gas. I almost didn't, but I did. So, tonight someone's fate will rely on balls, imagine that.

Anyways, the only reason I brought that up is because of my blog title, which I only used because I honestly couldn't think of anything better. I'm still not on top of my game from this illness that's had be down for so long. Thankfully I seem to be on the mend!! Yay!!

Work was still miserable yesterday, but not nearly as bad at the weeks before. I was able to enjoy myself a couple different times last night. Not much, though, we were incredibly busy! There were two games, one of which had us humping around non-stop for nearly an hour. Thank god I was off at 8 and managed to get out of there before the second wave.

Sow, what's happened over the last few days... Well Sunday I still felt off, mainly due to the terrible headache that I had. LaVaughn and my aunt and uncle went off somewhere, so I stayed home and worked on a couple cage sets that were FAR overdue. I managed to get the big vine in each set, little vines for the buckets, and sew the shell of the buckets up. I finished sewing the rest of those Monday and sent everything out Tuesday.

I worked yesterday, obviously, and rented a couple movies from Redbox. A new "8 Films to Die For" was released a while back and to my surprise, there were 3 of them at Redbox, which I rented. I'm going to go ahead and warn you, don't watch them. All 3 were terrible -- I honestly don't even know if I'll bother wasting the money on anymore if I find them.

Today I sewed another cage set that was sold Monday. I'll be doing the same tomorrow.

That's taking place BEFORE I get my nails done. I'm super stoked and nervous. I've never had acrylic nails before, so this is an entirely new experience for me. Wish me luck! LaVaughn's getting hers filled and painted again, should be an interesting evening.

Hmm, I guess I'll talk about gliders before I sign off. The new joeys are doing great, growing like weeds. Jim has found his forever home, Dale is still available -- I haven't advertised him yet. Kira and Logan's newest joey should detach in the next week or so. Looks like they're having a Black Beauty girl, again! What happened to the mosaics guys??

Well, I guess that's all for now. Until next time...

Love & Peace

-Megan

Pics from Monday - today:

Now pics from today of the joeys. Well some, not all:

Death becomes her...

I have fallen very ill as of late due to this horrendous cold that I've had. I'm going on day 8 now, which is completely ridiculous. I know I shouldn't complain, considering it's just a cold, but "just" and "cold" shouldn't be applied together in this case.

Like I said in my last blog, my cold started on the first of the year -- I know, awesome way to spend the New Year. Things were worse Saturday, I was fatigued and my head felt swollen. Sunday I was super congested and couldn't seem to clear my throat. I started coughing Sunday night, which led to me having a sore throat. That persisted through Tuesday when I had to work -- I'll talk about running the entire shift on Tuesday in a minute -- leaving my throat sore and a terribly persistent cough that did allow me to raise my voice at all.

My sore throat started to diminish Tuesday night, but my congested was a strong as ever. My head and chest were unbelievably congested Wednesday and I had absolutely no sense of smell or taste at all that day. LaVaughn and I had to take Fletcher to the vet in Fredericktown that day, plus grocery shop, so you can imagine how fun that trip was. Wednesday night I coughed so terribly bad, but it was far worse Thursday. I woke up around 10:30 and stayed up coughing until a little before 12, I kid you not. I would cough terribly, then get relaxed enough to almost fall asleep, then I could cough again. It was murder!

Thursday evening I still couldn't really smell or taste much, but I did fell like 12.3% better, so I decided to clean the drop trays and rat cage, even though I didn't really want to. Just as things started to look up, I found myself favoring my right ear that night. This dull, achy feeling that I just couldn't shake. Friday my congestion seemed to have diminished by nearly 50%, as well as my cough by 60% or more. I still had that terrible dull pain in my ear that just wouldn't go away.

I woke up today feeling slightly better. My congestion is loads better. I still have a cough, though not as bad as before. The thing that's bothering me most is my ear. I can't get rid of the dull throb of pain. It's stemming all the way from my ear to my throat, but that was mostly yesterday and the day before. Today the pan is causing me to have sever tooth sensitivity and some pain, which sucks. I'm also talking extremely nasal, which sucks. I haven't been able to talk normal in days. It is better today, but not much.

I'm starting to feel better (knock wood) I think, but I don't want to get too optimistic and wake up sicker tomorrow. I've gone over a year without being sick, my body is definitely letting me know it. I know I shouldn't complain, there are people in FAR worse shape than me, so I honestly have no right whatsoever to bitch about something as minor as a cold. Still, it's uncomfortable and just not a fun experience.

I was supposed to work 2-10 today, but since we were supposed to get bad weather today I found someone to cover 7-10 for me. I guess everyone in Ironton had either froze to death or feared they would get caught in the non-existent blizzard, so they stayed home. This made labor bad and allowed me to leave just before 5. It's a loss in money, but I still don't feel like doing anything, so getting to come home was a godsend.

Speaking of work, I ran the store/shift Tuesday while all the managers were at a meeting. I'm not talking just watching someone's spot, I'm talking full on in charge! I had managers numbers, the key to the safe, everything! I got to run an entire crew of people for over 3 hours. Not bragging, but I did awesome. Times were down, the store was clean and well stocked, it was awesome.

I was very sick that day, which made the whole experience miserable for me, which sucks because I was really looking forward to it.

Aside from that nothing exciting has happened. I don't leave the house unless I absolutely have to. I stay inside and cough my way through bottles and bottles of Mucinex. LaVaughn and I have been playing the Sims off and on all week, which is fun. It would be more so if I wasn't... You guessed it, sick! Hopefully next week will be better. And have I mentioned that I don't have to work tomorrow? Yay!

I haven't really been able to enjoy the joeys either, which also sucks. They're so unbelievably cute and just awesome! Their eyes opened up a couple days ago, which is early for joeys. We've also decided to name them Jim and Dale. Some of you will get that. :)

Well I guess that's all for now. Hopefully I'm better next time and have something more exciting to wrote about...

Love & Peace

-Megan

Pictures from the past few days:

Wednesday...

Love, love, LOVE getting packages in the mail! Have I mentioned that before?

Especially when those packages contain The Walking Dead comics. My heaven! <3 p="">

And a free zombie girl to boot!

On the way to the vet.

Flea meds for the cats.

And the dog.

Dale! <3 p="">

Jim! <3 p="">

Thursday...

My life right now.

And chamomile tea. Yuck!

Friday...

Mini preview of the joeys shoot. This is Jim:

Dale:

Nightly regime.

Cell pics of the boys. Dale:

Jim:

And today, my drive to work: